Tax Type
Individual Income Tax
Description
Military Pensions and Retirement Benefits
Topic
Taxable Income
Date Issued
07-25-1973
Your letter of July 20 requested an interpretation of § 58-151.013(c)(3)(B) and (D) of the Code of Virginia. These sections provide exemptions from Virginia taxable income for the following:
- (B) Pensions received from the United States or this State on account of military or naval service in armed forces . . .;
- "(D) The first two thousand dollars of retirement benefits derived from service as a member of the armed forces of the United States received by taxpayers who have attained the age of sixty before the close of their taxable year.'
Your question was whether retirement benefits of an army officer should be designated a "pension' under subsection (B) or a ``retirement benefit' under subsection (D).
In the case of Court v. Commonwealth, 207 Va. 556, 151 S. E. 2d 384 (1966) the Supreme Court held that military retirement pay was not a ``pension' within the meaning of the predecessor of subsection (B). The Court stated that a pension was a gratuitous recognition of a moral or honorary obligation without any regard to actual performance of service, and that the word should be narrowly construed to include only gratuitous payments which could be withheld by Congress and not contractual claims such as retirement pay. It is therefore my opinion that an army officer's retirement pay is within subsection (D), not subsection (B), of § 58-151.013(c)(3).
Attorney General's Opinion